Corporate donors to the Koch brothers-funded right-wing think thank known as the American Legislative Exchange Council – or ALEC – are dropping like flies. On Thursday – Kraft became the third major corporation to part ways with ALEC – joining Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

ALEC sponsors were put on notice this week, when the organization Color for Change called for a boycott of all companies that give money to ALEC. The group is

On Wednesday – a 77-year-old retired pharmacist walked up to the Greek Parliament building and shot himself in the head to protest the crippling austerity measures that are ripping apart that nation. The man – whose name has not been released – left behind a note reading, “I have no other way to react apart from finding a dignified end before I start sifting through garbage for food.”

His suicide prompted thousands of Greeks t

Minimum wage workers are screwed. While Republicans in Congress want to drop or throw away the federal minimum wage – new data shows that the minimum wage in America is woefully inadequate. The current minimum wage is pegged at $7.25 – but given the price increase of pretty much everything over the last few decades – from healthcare to housing to education – that $7.25 doesn’t get you very far.

In fact – today’s minimum

The New York Times is reporting on a new study showing that the long-term unemployed (those out of work more than six months) are twice as likely to die within a year of unemployment as are those who are employed. Even 20 years after getting back to work – those Americans who experienced long-term unemployment in their younger years still have a 15% greater chance of dying early.

According to the study – a worker who lost thei